The new law, which went into effect last month, has been suspended for 120 days, preventing the government from enforcing it. Oral arguments in the case will be heard by the court early next year. The court ordered the government to respond to its order within ten days.

If the law is upheld, it will expand powers of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP). The law states that they are tasked with enforcement online, and that they "shall organize a cybercrime unit or center manned by special investigators to exclusively handle cases involving violations of this Act." Such cases will be prosecuted in "special cybercrime courts manned by specially trained judges to handle cybercrime cases."

Another petitioner, Renato Reyes, the secretary-general of the left-wing New Patriotic Alliance, told the Associated Press that the court's order was "a major victory for freedom and civil liberties."

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Cyrus Farivar
Cyrus is a Senior Tech Policy Reporter at Ars Technica, and is also a radio producer and author. His latest book, Habeas Data, about the legal cases over the last 50 years that have had an outsized impact on surveillance and privacy law in America, is out now from Melville House. He is based in Oakland, California. Emailcyrus.farivar@arstechnica.com//Twitter@cfarivar